Coalition stays away from health hearing

In a week when Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed his profound disappointment that indigenous disadvantage is as great as ever, not one of his senators turned up to a committee hearing on indigenous health.

Shadow assistant health minister Stephen Jones said a range of experts appeared before the select committee, testifying about what can be done to improve indigenous health.

This week, Mr Abbott tabled the seventh annual Closing the Gap statement which assesses progress on improving all aspects of indigenous life from health to education.

"Despite the concerted efforts of successive governments since the first report, we are not on track to achieve most of the targets," he said.

The report revealed some improvements in education and health but said targets for closing the life expectancy gap had either not been met or were not on track.

"Despite the prime minister declaring this as profoundly disappointing, not a single coalition senator bothered to attend today's inquiry devoted to indigenous health," Mr Jones said in a statement.

He said the budget last year included $165 million ripped from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health programs.

"Had coalition senators bothered to attend today they would have heard evidence that the cuts to Indigenous health programs are seeing staff being sacked and services closed," he said.